Is Australia sick of winning Test matches?

In light of Australia’s Ashes success I’ve hardly written a thing in the past four months.

Instead of whinging and whining I have been able to sit back and bask in the glory of the most amazing series whitewash of my lifetime.

Occasionally I have indulged the odd celebratory Facebook status but really there hasn’t been anything to disagree with or write about. Until now…

Australia recently picked their touring squad to face South Africa and A View From the Top is not happy. In fact, not happy would be a gross understatement.

I would describe my reaction to the selections of Shaun Marsh and Alex Doolan as somewhere between disillusioned and disheartened.

As you will see below, there is absolutely no logical explanation for the selections of either Doolan or Marsh.

Alex Doolan
28 years old
Six centuries in 94 First class innings
Three centuries in his last three Sheffield Shield seasons
Averages 38 runs this season and 37 for his career.

But you say he scored 161 against the very same side we are about to play? Well indeed he did.

But in that ‘tour’ game Morne Morkel did not play, and Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander combined for 40 overs out of 135 bowled.

Doolan batted at six after Steyn and Philander had bowled at least their first and probably their second spells. So we can assume he had to face one, possibly two spells from each of South Africa’s spearheads.

The remaining 95 overs were shared between Rory Kleinveldt, ImranTahir, JP Duminy, Faf De Plessis and Hashim Amla.

Tahir, Duminy and Kleinveldt bowled 80 overs in that innings. The performance of this group of bowlers on the rest of that tour would see them struggle for a spot under the captaincy of Jack Cahill in Blacktown’s highly lauded third grade outfit.

Basically, Alex Doolan is a 28 year old without even a single outstanding Sheffield Shield season to his name.

At first class level over a sustained period of time he has proven to be consistently mediocre, with his only performance of note coming against a side in which Imran Tahir (worst Test match bowling figures ever) bowled one third of the overs.

Shaun Marsh
30 years old
Nine centuries in 165 first class innings
One century in his last three full first class seasons
Averages 35 over his first class career
Averages 34, 19 and 16 over his last three first class seasons

The justification for the selection of Marsh has bounced between him being a class player, playing pace better then Bailey or his recent limited overs form. Let’s debunk these straight away.

“He’s a class player.”

See above for averages in last three Shield seasons. See above for century too innings ratio.

“He plays pace well.”

Shaun Marsh had one of the most spectacularly horrendous series in recent memory against quite possibly the worst pace attack to ever tour Australia. Marsh struggled to reach a double figure aggregate for the series against an Indian side flogged 4-0.

“He has done well in limited overs cricket recently” or “he looked good against England the other night”.

Firstly, in his favoured coloured clothes formats he isn’t even first choice and only came into the side as a ‘resting’ replacement.

Secondly, only five Tests ago George Bailey was selected on the basis of his one-day form and is by the length of the Hume Highway a better one-day batsman then Marsh, averaging over 70 for the calendar year.

On the basis on one ODI for Australia and a failed Sheffield Shield campaign, how can the selectors now consider Marsh a better prospect?

Thirdly, look at the above stats for his red ball form over the past three seasons.

Shaun Marsh has done absolutely nothing in any of the last three seasons (or his career) to justify Test selection.

He has been tried at Test level on the back of his ‘class’ and ‘talent’ before and, despite a century on debut, has replicated his mediocre Sheffield Shield career at Test level.

George Bailey was considered the best man for the job only a month or two ago and I fail to see what has changed in that time. He has played a number of decent innings at Test level and has an outstanding international limited overs record.

From the outside looking in he played a significant role in the Ashes series whitewash despite underwhelming returns with the bat.

If the selectors considered George Bailey the best fit five Tests ago and in light of the reality I have outlined above, what has changed in that time that he is now not the answer?

The only thing I can say with any certainty to that question is that Doolan and Marsh have not changed at all. They are still posting mediocre first class scores in line with their mediocre careers to date.

If the selectors have decided to go away from Bailey (which for the record, I wouldn’t), surely a player such as Phil Hughes has done enough to earn a recall.

If you’re of the school of thought that Hughes has had enough chances, perhaps the outstanding Shield season of Marcus North proves more worthy then either Doolan or Marsh.

In fact, there is a list of batsman both tried and untried at international level – think Chris Lynn, Cameron White, Jordan Silk and Nic Maddinson – who you could at least mount some sort of reasoned argument for inclusion.

Perhaps the best illustration of what I think of the squad is that I hope Australia go into the first Test against the world beating South Africans with Brad Haddin batting at six and James Faulkner at seven.

As of today a wicketkeeper at six and bowler that bats a bit at seven is the best side I could pick from the 15-man squad.